PESHAWAR: Chairmanship of the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has become a bone of contention and triggered a tug of war between senior PTI figures after it emerged that its political committee had voted to replace maverick Sher Afzal Khan Marwat with Sheikh Waqas Akram.
A party insider told media that PTI’s political committee met in Islamabad on Friday night under its chairman to discuss the nomination with majority voting to replace Mr Marwat with the MNA from Jhang.
The party insider said that nine of the 19-member committee headed by Omar Ayub voted for Shaikh Waqas, seven for Mr Marwat, with Aon Abbas, although present, opted to abstain. Former speaker Asad Qaiser and Mr Marwat were not present.
“This is a conspiracy against me by the PTI establishment,” a bitter and angry sounding Sher Afzal Marwat said, confirming the report, when approached for comment over the phone.He particularly named Mr Ayub and Shibli Faraz amongst those, he alleged, were engaged in never-ending conspiracies against him. “Because I am popular,” he said.
Dawn sent a WhatsApp message on Mr Ayub’s mobile phone seeking his comments on the allegations.The party’s principal spokesperson Raoof Hasan, however, declined to make a comment on the subject, saying its founding chairman routinely referred matters to the committee for discussions and consultation and that whatever recommendations it came up with, were referred back to the jailed leader, who decided the matter either way.
“We are duty-bound not to talk about matters until such time when Khan Sahib decides the matter with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’,” the party’s central secretary information said on the phone.“Anything else until then would be speculation,” he said, refusing to confirm or deny the development.
The MNA from Lakki Marwat, whose dramatic rise to prominence following the incarceration of party leader Imran Khan in different cases, has been in the news, from leading the party when most leaders were underground, his witty remarks and his no-holds-barred comments which have often put him at loggerheads with his party colleagues and others.
